A Change in Marketing?

If you are looking for information on a product or some evolving issue, where would you go? It used to be mainstream media as a form of gaining information, but over the last couple of years that has changed dramatically. With the rise of technology, citizens and individuals have become more active in this search for information and freely provide it, whether it be videos, blogs, or other online aspects. These actions are all important in creating User Generated Content, or UGC.

I think that the largest aspect or problem people have with UGC deals with trust. An online post from Bruce Clay, Inc noted that one of the positive aspects of UGC is that it is trusted from consumers. They note that people trust the information about the product because not all comments are positive. There are people who give negative reviews and talk about the flaws in the product.

Advertising and marketing is based on the idea of promoting the positive aspects of a product. People naturally want to know what problems there are with the product or to give a more accurate representation. UGC provides a perfect way to get this information in an unbiased way.

With this being said, what will UGC do to the future or appeal of marketing? In an online marketing blog post about User Generated Content for Search Engine Optimization, they said "Consumer distrust of formal marketing communications has in part been facilitated by the alternatives offered through user generated content." What does this mean for marketing companies?

Well as I see it, people aren't always going to look online for information about their products. Consumer behavior isn't going to change that much in terms of brand loyalty for low involvement products, such as toilet paper or potato chips. People aren't going to search online to see which chip is better for instance. However, in terms of high involvement products, such as cars or electronics, I think that the implementation of UGC will have a much greater impact on the consumer decision making process.
Do you think marketers need to change their strategy to rebuild their trust from consumers? Or do you think there is no need for change?

Do I Know You?

I was never really a fan of myspace. I feel like there were too many people on their for the wrong reasons. While I know that there are tons of other networking sites and each one had a specific goal once they started up (i.e. facebook and college students), myspace reached out too far. People just add people they don't know based on looks or interests or they look like they could be very outgoing. Instead of having 125 friends, people try to reach up to 300 friends- whether or not they are actually friends. With any developed or long standing networking site that has an unlimited group of people who could join, I feel like people just add people for the heck of it. Facebook has gotten there.

I know all of you have probably gotten a friend request and you are like, do i even know you? and then try to search and see if you have any common friends only to find out, you dont. Some people just try to friend people to create a new connection- one that may not even exist.

With professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, what is the appropriate friending technique? I never know if I should just add someone because I have talked to them once or know about them. Is friending them the right thing to do? In terms of coworkers, I have worked with a lot of individuals but haven't necessarily talked to them other than on work terms. For others, I recognize their names having sent them emails but have very rarely if actually met them face to face. I don't add them to my LinkedIn profile.

In one article, it was said that "Just as we are now seeing a consumer backlash on MySpace--people have too many ‘friends’--we may see a similar reaction with the networking sites, and their value will decline." I completely agree. People sometimes just add people because they may work for the same company and look for people who be useful for connections. And with so many people doing the same thing, these connections aren't strong or useful.

While there may be a few people on your professional account that you may not know, next time you are about to friend someone, think about if its worth it...